2022/23 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "TANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

if you pare the nuggets rotation down to murray, brown, KCP, gordon, porter, jokic it looks way better from a playoff POV than anything they've had in the past. i think the question is whether they can get the right combos out there & if you can utilize a wing heavy, switchable looking rotation w/ jokic at center. or if his presence means you have to play a more conservative, straight up style defense that in the end can't keep up w/ the more fully switchable teams. sixers and grizz prob have similar questions to answer. the bucks made it work but they might have the best guard defender, wing defender, and big defender in the league on their team so they're kinda off in their own zone

the brilliance of the celtics is that at the end of the day they have more defensive minded centers but who are also plusses on offense. yet they don't need to play either of them to be good. or they can play both of them.

the thing about playing switching d is that most teams have to go small to do it and jokic will just kill you, you end up either doubling him and he slices you up with passing or you let him get his which idk maybe is better he might get tired, it would actually be a fascinating matchup vs the celtics who are the most switchable team in the league

but idk horf can kind of defend him straight up no one else on the team has a chance tho

"grizz prob have similar questions to answer. "

grizz dont have that prob imo. they go jaren at the 5 or clarke and can run/switch with anyone. thats why they give the warriors some challenges. now they have an emerged aldama too who can stretch the floor as well. tons of lineup flexibility.

yeah they just didnt play adams last year

crazy thing about joker is he so fn big, hes like embiid if you couldnt just easily make him turn the ball over 20% of the time

the thing about playing switching d is that most teams have to go small to do it and jokic will just kill you, you end up either doubling him and he slices you up with passing or you let him get his which idk maybe is better he might get tired, it would actually be a fascinating matchup vs the celtics who are the most switchable team in the league

― lag∞n, Tuesday, January 10, 2023 2:41 PM (thirteen minutes ago)

perhaps the warriors are just nuggets kryptonite bcuz playoff draymond can do enough on jokic one on one and then on the other end they just obliterate him in pick and roll every possession & it doesn't require them to change anything about how they play. he had some big games vs phoenix two years ago but also seemed frustrated by the end of that series, perhaps nothing to do w/ what phoenix was doing on defense tho. how teams like memphis, new orleans would play the nuggets is very interesting

draymond *and looney

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35420200/source-magic-jonathan-isaac-acl-moves-closer-nba-return

this guy has taken a year longer to play than shawn livingston took for his devastating knee injury. very weird.

he had some preaching obligations

hes played 136 games since he was drafted in 2017, just one of those guys whos body cant do nba, hes likely some sort of lunatic too

i wld like to see a jokic draymond playoff battle this year pendulum might swing

think i had predicted bucks mavs finals for some reason but celtics grizz is what i want to see

draymond has been good this year and while I am not worried about him I would prefer to avoid the warriors for psychological reasons

warriors are the most psychological team, true

if i’m denver i don’t wanna see the warriors in the playoffs. that’s the one team in the west i look at and am just like, that’s a really bad match up for the nugs. but the warriors are old so hey

yeah for sure

warriors not too worried about the nuggets. the grizzlies offer their toughest matchup.

teams that shoot a ton of threes generally a bad matchup for us

think i had predicted bucks mavs finals for some reason but celtics grizz is what i want to see

― ciderpress, Tuesday, January 10, 2023 3:43 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah thats the best one

um no

nobody wants to watch dillon brooks in the nba finals

i think a warriors vs bucks, steph vs giannis finals would be pretty sweet. the grizz would be fun to watch in the finals but i think they need a bit more seasoning (losing) for me to really get on board w/ their involvement

jordan have you seen the warriors play this season

yeah but they're starting to round into form. they started playing sensible rotations which has really helped

they look like themselves when not forcing their young guys (wiseman) to play, plus healthy. curry comes back tonight. wiggins is back. iggy just came back. they have their playoff rotation now: curry, klay, wigg, dray, loon, poole, donte, kuminga plus maybe iggy

yeah they have the ideal shape of a line up around steph & dray again aka a bunch of guards and wing players. GP3 and otto porter were huge for them last playoffs and they don't have any obvious replacements for those exact roles. also donte is always hurt and it's an open question how much he & kuminga can be trusted in the playoffs anyway. i think a move for an olynyk or bogdanovic (pistons) type stretch 4 to fill the porter role would be a prudent move for them

yeah they need to make a move but bogdonavic makes too much money

iggy is my mortal enemy (now that the jokic teams have surpassed the 2013 nuggets team) but is he really the difference maker in 2023?

for the other team, maybe

no hes cooked but wont do anything dumb in his 10 minutes of play

with so many teams in the mix there gonna be a lot of buyers for quality rotation guys at the deadline this year

lotta buyers but less sellers

yeah only a handful of teams are tanking rn, maybe get a couple few more by the deadline

lottery changes really helped can only imagine what kind of ridiculousness would be going on right now if teams were chasing the worst record

yeah between that, the cba working to spread talent around and the play-in the nba has done some things to alter tanking drastically

i even like the playin in now i thought it was adding too many playoff teams but its almost like they took some away since being a play in team is shameful

Hey so who's going to claim the "Wanking for Tembanyama" d/n?

do it lol

in any other year, it'd be "scoot it and boot it"

Boot Scoot-in' Boogie

real nice choke by okc in miami tonight

heat went 40-40 from the line

suns have one starter playing tonight

dubs black uniforms gray court situation is such a disaster

steph is back tho

watching jimmy butler take and make 23 free throws would probably put me on suicide watch

i only watched the 4th quarter so i survived

Jesus....

pic.twitter.com/weEYJ8MtpD

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) January 11, 2023